1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of determining a multi factor temperature index that is better indicative of the weather conditions that influence how warm or cold a person feels. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a method and system for determining a multi factor temperature index based on specified weather parameters representative of weather conditions that influence how warm or cold a person feels.
2. Description of the Related Art
The actual temperature recorded by a temperature measuring device is only one indicator of how comfortable a person feels. Other weather conditions significantly influence the comfort level felt by a person.
Although temperature is the most popular weather indicator used to communicate the weather conditions, the temperature by itself is often not a sufficiently good indicator of how comfortable a person really feels. The comfort level that a person really feels is a composite of several other weather conditions such as, for example, the wind, humidity, solar intensity, cloudiness, precipitation, atmospheric pressure and elevation.
Therefore, the actual measured temperature by itself provides only one indicia of how comfortable a person would feel under any weather conditions. Other measures such as wind chill or heat index include the temperature and one other element, such as wind speed or humidity. Furthermore, many of these existing indexes are designed to measure effects on inanimate objects rather than a clothed person. Therefore, these indexes do not provide a good indication of how the weather xe2x80x9creally feelsxe2x80x9d to a normally clothed person.
Therefore, known temperature based indexes of weather conditions do not give an accurate feel of the weather conditions to a normally clothed person. Furthermore, none of the existing temperature based indexes include more than one other weather parameter other than the actual temperature. Therefore, current temperature based indexes do not actually represent how hot or cold a normally clothed person feels based on the totality of the weather conditions that influence the feel in addition to the measured actual temperature.
Therefore, it is a general objective of the invention to alleviate the problems and shortcomings identified above.
This and other objectives are achieved by providing a computer implemented method that calculates a multi factor temperature index by (a) determining the values of at least two weather related parameters; and (b) calculating the multi factor temperature index using the determined values of the two weather related parameters and a temperature value.
In one aspect, the present invention provides that the two weather related parameters are selected from a group consisting of a wind speed parameter, a solar intensity parameter, a dew point parameter, an atmospheric pressure parameter and a precipitation parameter.
In another aspect, the present invention provides determining three weather related parameters to calculate a multi factor temperature index based on the determined values of the three weather related parameters and a temperature value.
A further aspect of the present invention provides determining four weather related parameters and calculating the multi factor temperature index based on the four weather related parameters and a temperature value.
Another aspect of the present invention provides determining five weather related parameters and calculating the multi factor temperature index based on the five weather related parameters and a temperature value.
One aspect of the present invention provides that the three, four, and five weather related parameters are selected from a group consisting of a wind speed parameter, a solar intensity parameter, a dew point parameter, an atmospheric pressure parameter and a precipitation parameter.
Another aspect of the present invention provides that the weather related parameters may be derived from either measured values, observed values, or forecasted values, or from a combination of measured, observed and forecasted values.
One important aspect of the present invention provides a computer implemented method of calculating a multifactor temperature index that includes: determining the value of at least two weather related parameters; determining at least two ranges of a sunshine related parameter; and calculating a respective multifactor temperature index value for each of the two ranges of the sunshine related parameter using the at least two weather related parameters.
In another aspect the present invention provides for calculating the multifactor temperature index for one of the two ranges of the sunshine related parameter uses an UV index related parameter.
In an additional aspect, the present invention also provides for determining at least two temperature related ranges before determining the at least two ranges of a sunshine related parameter for each of the two temperature related ranges, where calculating of the multifactor temperature indexes is done differently for each of the two ranges of the two temperature related ranges.
In another important aspect, the present invention provides a computer readable data storage medium having program code recorded thereon for calculating a multi factor temperature index, the program code including: a first program code that determines values of at least two weather related parameters; and a second program code that calculates a multi factor temperature index using the determined values of the two weather related parameters and an actual temperature value.
In another important aspect, the present invention provides a computer readable data storage medium having program code recorded thereon for calculating a multifactor temperature index, the program code including: a first program code that determines values of at least two weather related parameters; a second program code that determines at least two ranges of a sunshine related parameter; and a third program code that calculates a respective multifactor temperature index value for each of the two ranges of the sunshine related parameter using the at least two weather related parameters.
In another important aspect, the present invention provides a system for calculating a multi factor temperature index, the system including: means for determining values of at least two weather related parameters; and means for calculating the multi factor temperature index using the determined values of the two weather related parameters and an actual temperature value.
In a further important aspect, the present invention provides a system for calculating a multi factor temperature index, the system including: means for determining the values of at least two weather related parameters; means for determining at least two ranges of a sunshine related parameter; and means for calculating a respective multifactor temperature index value for each of the two ranges of the sunshine related parameter using the at least two weather related parameters.